20 more jobs to be nationalized in Saudi Arabia

November 23, 2014

Jeddah, Nov 23: Authorities have taken steps to nationalize more jobs in travel, tourism and hotel industries, petrochemicals, carpentry and plumbing sectors as part of efforts to reduce the number of unemployed nationals.

The Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) said Saturday it was increasing the number of professions slated for training-cum-employment program to 90, adding 20 new professions.

jobs

“The move aims at creating more job opportunities to Saudis after providing them with necessary training,” said Fahd Al-Otaibi, spokesman for TVTC.

Ali Al-Ghafees, governor of TVTC, said expats take about 81 percent technical and professional jobs. “We are trying to replace these expats with Saudis.”

Talaat Hafiz, secretary-general of the media committee for Saudi banks, estimated the unemployment rate among Saudi men at 11.7 percent. “There are more than 600,000 job seekers,” he told a forum in Jeddah.

During the last three years the Labor Ministry and Human Resource Development Fund have succeeded in creating over 700,000 jobs for Saudis.

The Hafiz program helped in developing a database of unemployed Saudis, Talaat Hafiz said, adding that the number of Saudi men and women registered with the program for receiving unemployment allowance reached 1.4 million.

Al-Otaibi emphasized his organization’s readiness to provide training to Saudis for the various professions required by the job market. “We have selected the new professions for training not on a random basis but after realizing the market needs.”

He said studies have also confirmed the importance of these professions in raising the Saudiaztion rate. “We have signed more than 30 agreements with businesses to provide joint training to interested graduates and individuals.”

The TVTC has established partnerships with companies operating in technical and professional fields to train its graduates in the private sector, the spokesman said. “Our training programs match the needs of the job market,” he said, adding that most training programs end up with employment.

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News Network
April 26,2020

Dubai, Apr 26: Saudi Arabia reported 1223 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 17522, the Ministry of Health announced on Sunday (April 26).

Meanwhile, the ministry reported 142 recoveries today, with total recoveries in the kingdom at 2357. There are 115 cases in intensive care.

The ministry also confirmed 3 deaths, bringing the total number of deaths in the kingdom to 139.

Saudi King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz has ordered the partial lifting of a curfew imposed due to the new coronavirus across the country while keeping a 24-hour lockdown in the holy city of Mecca, the Saudi news agency SPA reported Sunday. The partial lifting of the restriction started Sunday from 9am until 5pm and will continue until May 14, the agency added.

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Agencies
February 5,2020

Paris, Feb 5: Saudi Arabia has reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu virus on a poultry farm, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Tuesday, February 4.

The outbreak, which occurred in the central Sudair region, killed 22,700 birds, the OIE said, citing a report from the Saudi agriculture ministry.

The other 385,300 birds in the flock were slaughtered, it said.

The case was the first outbreak of the H5N8 virus in Saudi Arabia since July 2018.

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News Network
March 6,2020

Riyadh, Mar 6: Saudi Arabia on Thursday emptied Islam's holiest site for sterilisation over fears of the new coronavirus, an unprecedented shutdown state media said will last while the year-round Umrah pilgrimage is suspended.

The kingdom halted the pilgrimage for its own citizens and residents on Wednesday, on top of restrictions announced last week on foreign pilgrims to stop the disease from spreading.

State television relayed images of an empty white-tiled area surrounding the Kaaba -- a large black cube structure inside Mecca's Grand Mosque -- which is usually packed with tens of thousands of pilgrims.

As a "precautionary measure", the area will remain closed as long as the umrah suspension lasts but prayers will be allowed inside the mosque, state-run Saudi Press Agency cited a mosque official as saying.

Additionally, the Grand Mosque and the Prophet's Mosque in the city of Medina will be closed an hour after the evening "Isha" prayer and will reopen an hour before the dawn "Fajr" prayer to allow cleaning and sterilisation, the official added.

A group of cleaners was seen scrubbing and mopping the tiles around the Kaaba, a structure draped in gold-embroidered gold cloth towards which Muslims around the world pray.

A Saudi official told news agency the decision to close the area was "unprecedented".

On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia suspended the umrah for its own citizens and residents over fears of the coronavirus spreading to Islam's holiest cities.

The move came after authorities last week suspended visas for the umrah and barred citizens from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council from entering Mecca and Medina.

Saudi Arabia on Thursday declared three new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of reported infections to five.

The umrah, which refers to the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca that can be undertaken at any time of year, attracts millions of Muslims from across the globe annually.

The decision to suspend the umrah mirrors a precautionary approach across the Gulf to cancel mass gatherings from concerts to sporting events.

It comes ahead of the holy fasting month of Ramadan starting in late April, which is a favoured period for pilgrimage.

It is unclear how the coronavirus will affect the hajj, due to start in late July.

Some 2.5 million faithful travelled to Saudi Arabia from across the world in 2019 to take part in the hajj, which is one of the five pillars of Islam as Muslim obligations are known.

The event is a massive logistical challenge for Saudi authorities, with colossal crowds cramming into relatively small holy sites, making attendees vulnerable to contagion.

Already reeling from slumping oil prices, the kingdom risks losing billions of dollars annually from religious tourism as it tightens access to the sites.

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